The Ending of BARRY is Incredible | Video Essay

Here's the thing: I wasn't into this ending the first time that I watched it, but it has definitely grown on me. In this essay I discuss the dramatic irony that the final season has and how the show comments on the media landscape that it is a part of. In the last chapter, I note a personal issue I had with the ending, which to be clear, didn't affect my enjoyment of the ending. It's just a thing that I miss from the other seasons of the show.

Timestamps:
0:00 Spoiler Bumper
1:06 Intro
2:38 Can Barry Change?
7:22 Violence in Media
14:04 Huh?
20:08 Outro

💡 Videos/Sources that were used for this essay 💡
Subscribe animations by @produced_by_eugene

Music used for this essay:
Lofi Heavy Chill Bass Keyboard by Phillip Dillow on Pixabay:
(used in the intro and outro)

Songs "Empty Mind" (Chapter 4) and "Sleepy Cat" (Chapters 3, 5) by @CMT8 (Lofi Hour)

Second Channel: @CritLIVE

📌TAGS📌
#barryseason4 #billhader #henrywinkler

[criticalcoffee]

Sorry for the confusion! I thought the English subtitles would be reliable. Relying on them to analyze the scene is mea culpa.

[lilypad]

The final scene with Barry saying "Oh wow" with a cut to black made me pause, laugh for about a minute straight, and then just contemplate for another minute. Fantastic ending.

[gFamWeb]

I think they purposely made Jim not as smart in the end because they didn't want to make him a hero. He's a guy who tortures people. No matter the ends, the means don't really justify them.

[Ynafey]

Barry killed the guy hiding in the ceiling during his escape from jail. So he "technically" did kill someone during season 4.

[chickenpasta]

You can tell this is something Bill Hader wanted to do for a long time. There was so much passion in this show and it shows

[_D_E_N_N_I_S_]

This season has the least amount of comedy but also has some of the funniest moments of the entire series

[shiddyangler]

What I loved about the show is how it never gives off the impression that Barry was some invincible super-assassin like John Wick. He has an incredible amount of dumb luck and multiple times almost got himself killed. And this approach worked perfectly as a dark comedy because Hollywood is inundated with "Segal-Type" action movies where an assassin tries to move on with their life and always gets pulled back in to show what a badass they are. The show constantly reminds you that Barry is just a human and his constant gaffes as an "assassin" are hilariously written throughout the show. This theme reminded me a lot of John Lakeman from The Patriot (also an awesome series).

[nont]

I think I had the answer to the part “Huh?”

The answer is this show isn’t supposed to tie up loose ends because not all loose ends happened because of Barry.

The cleverest part of this season is that Bill Hader kinda experimented with the audience and tested how much audience became like the supporting characters like Gene, Hank and Sally?

What does it mean?

It means that these characters love to overlook their own flaws and blame all of their misfortunes on Barry because they saw Barry as a boogeyman for all their problems.

I know that Barry is an evil killing machine but he has his own problems and isn’t responsible for every bad thing that happened. Just look at season 4 objectively, Barry is probably the least active main character in season 4.

Ep 1-3: He spent his time brooding in jail while started doing something when he shot the assassin to escape (which ended up being the last time ever he shot and killed someone because after that, he never pulled a trigger ever again.)
Ep 4: He only popped up in the final scene.
Ep 5: He’s a stay at home dad.
Ep 6: He went to LA just to get caught by Jim.
Ep 7: He only walked around in Jim’s house.
Ep 8: He went to the scene after the action was over then went to Gene’s house just to get killed midway through the episode.

Meanwhile, the other characters were more active in committing the atrocities this season and the finale made it clear that just because Barry died, the problems never goes away because these people are already awful by default with or without Barry. Barry was only the excuse for their awfulness.
- Sally is still a self-centered emotionally distant mother to John years after Barry death. She only cares about her own play and refused to give John affection by saying “I love you” back to him. She’s also hypocritical by begging Barry to turn himself in because “responsibility” while never did the same thing herself.
- The only thing Barry took away from Gene is Janice but the rest are all Gene and I can’t say that he didn’t deserve this ending. Barry didn’t compel him to sell Janice’s story to the reporter against the promise Gene made with Jim. Barry also didn’t make Gene omit the truth about 250k drug money from the cops or abandoning his son (for the second time) after shooting his son. Gene did it all himself and it made him look guilty af. And most importantly, Barry even tried to confess to help Gene out of prison but his inability to change made him kill Barry in an instant without listening to what he said.
- Hank had Cristobal killed without Barry’s influence.

This is a perfect anti-Breaking Bad/ Better Call Saul show because while the former loves to blame the protagonist to the absurd degree that they are the cause of all problems (pro-establishment sentiment), Barry did the inverse and told us that just because one bad guy is gone doesn’t mean the problem goes away because it’s a systematic issue. Janice never gets justice because of Gene’s flaws, the incompetency of the cops and greedy hollywood which are out of Barry’s controls. A very anti-establishment sentiment.

[ZrankFappaH]

I will miss Barry wholeheartedly. I loved some of the goofiness as well as the darkness.

Hank dancing on a rooftop after avoiding death, Hanks shot soldier in agonising pain getting up to dance along.

The TV show meeting with Sally, her agent and the show executive where they’re all like “YeeAHh. YeeaaH” absolute gold.

[gallanosa]

Gene's son knew that the money wasn't earned by legal means. It was all in cash, and left in a duffle bag on this kitchen table. And it appeared as Gene was telling him that they had to flee "now." All that coupled together made it pretty clear that the money wasn't obtained legally (such as an acting job).

[goodolnoahYT]

I loved episode 5, it felt like some weird fever dream, and I was questioning if this was all happening in Barry's head or if it was real. Until he reverted back to his violent side and decided he was going to kill Gene. This show is actual genius, and the filmmaking and camera angles are godlike. If I was ever to produce something I wish it could be like this.

[meursault]

Seasons 1+2: "This is a great little comedy!"
Seasons 3+4: "Oh shit, I'm witnessing one of the greatest shows ever made"

[ylerD]

I think Albert is fine with Barry having a good legacy and being posthumously honored because of the sheer gratitude he feels for Barry saving his life.

[rebeccagibbs]

i love that the card in cousineaus gun says "dont shoot your dick off" and literally every time gene reaches for that gun he intentionally metaphorically shoots his own dick off.

[JayFolipurba]

I like that it knew when to wrap it up. So many great shows have fallen off after a while and Bill Hader knew exactly when and how to end it.

[ellie_olivia.]

I love barry and this season. In some way i think the show was trying to teach the audience about maturity for this season. Like when barry tell his son to not have a fight with that kid and instead let it go. But then ultimately showing barry did the exact opposite of it and it leads to his death. Showing that violence just leads to pain and suffering. which happened to every character on this season that choose violence like hank and cousineau. it's also interesting that the show been edging the audience with this "yeah barry will explode and shoot gun on this episode" but it never happened. It kinda like the writers telling the audience that "i know that's what you want but you're missing the point. Let me tell you why"

[Diyomaro]

The best part of Barry is that even if every joke doesn't land, you at least understand where they were going and it's still enjoyable.

[HorseJoint]

I just LOVE how Overwhelming Dark this show just devolves into. It’s AMAZING man.

[TommasoFirmini]

50/50

With Cristobal

Hank is probably my new favorite TV character. You could see how much fun Anthony had with the role. The way hank and Cristobal play off each other when proposing the sand deal was fucking amazing. Watched this show for the first time and finished it in like 2-3 days. My only wish is that the episodes were longer than 30min

[ValcryeTheSecond]

Barry was such a work of art. My friend recommended it to me a month ago and I just now completed the entire series, and it was outstanding